Sometimes initiated in an extreme emergency, care in an intensive care unit is a critical moment that can last from a few days to several months, during which every detail will count to offer a second chance to the patients admitted in intensive care. Admission to intensive care reflects the need for specialist care and also how sick the patient actually is. A prolonged stay in intensive care is often made up of periods of improvement and worsening of your loved one’s condition. The fragility of patients is also such that caregivers are used to being very cautious in assessing the prognosis. Learn more about the risks
Admission to the intensive care unit is a decisive moment, where treatments are often intense and complicated in order to stabilize the patient’s condition and compensate for the failure of their vital functions. After this initial phase, and due to the fragility of the patient’s condition, the stay may still be fraught with complications.
One of the characteristics of resuscitation is the intensive and continuous monitoring carried out thanks to the equipment and the density of the care team. Learn more about the care team
Caregivers constantly evaluate and reassess your loved one’s health status, asking questions about the expected benefits of current treatments and the risks that these treatments may entail. Their main objective is to adapt the care to the individuality of your loved one, and to always work in their interest, taking into account their wishes even when they cannot express them. The information you give them is useful in estimating the state of health of your loved one before his or her hospitalization in the service, and thus in evaluating the benefits that he or she may derive from the implementation of complicated treatments. Learn more about the role of relatives
If the risks and consequences of certain treatments are too great to justify their use, or if the patient will not benefit fully from them, caregivers may decide not to use these therapies unreasonably or to reverse certain decisions that are, with the progress of the patients condition, no longer considered appropriate. These decisions, which are also subject to daily re-evaluations, are made in consultation with the entire care team, taking into account the wishes of the patient and their family. Find out more about the role of family and friends in therapeutic decisions